London 2012 - Begin your journey here

The E20 postcode for the Olympic Park will also cover neighbouring areas including the residential apartments in the athletes' village plus the Westfield Stratford City shopping Centre which will house 400 retail units.

The postcodes will be split into three zones - E20 1, E20 2 and E20 3.

Zones 4 to 9 could be added in future decades as the site develops. Up to 8,000 homes will be built there over the next 20 years.

Stephen Agar, Royal Mail's director of regulated business, said: "It is fitting that such a significant development in London has been allocated its own easily recognisable postcode more than 150 years after the world's first postcodes were introduced in the capital."

Walford, the fictional suburb of East London where EastEnders is set, was given the E20 postcode when the BBC launched the soap opera in 1985.

The previous highest postcode area in real life East London was E18, around South Woodford. There is no E19.